New publications
Countries powered by renewable energy recover faster from economic crises
Researchers from CEM joined an international team of ecologists and economists to study the role of renewable energy in buffering the economies of 98 countries to 133 socio-economic crises over a 40-year period (from 1970 to 2011). The research found that countries with a greater diversity of renewable energy sectors tended to allow quicker economic recovery times. CEM researchers developed theoretical models to examine the role resource sector diversity, and key functional types (e.g., renewable energy sectors), play in yielding more resilient economies.
For more information see the research article at DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.107916 and media coverage in Cosmos magazine and phys.org.
Managing for Resilience with Nearshore Habitat Structure in Lakes
PhD candidate Charlotte Ward, along with supervisors Dr. Tyler Tunney from Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Dr. Kevin McCann from the University of Guelph (CEM), investigated the impact of structural habitat manipulation on fish communities and its implications for management. While the addition of structural habitat is commonly used as a management technique to improve the resilience of nearshore freshwater fish communities, its effectiveness in ecosystems with different characteristics remains poorly understood. Using simple theory, the researchers examined how the addition of prey refuge habitat affects consumer-resource interactions in ecosystems under varying levels of primary production. The results showed that the addition of prey refuge has divergent effects on the biomass production of consumers, such as sportfish, and the resilience of the fish community. Highly productive systems responded positively to increased nearshore refuge, whereas systems with low primary production responded negatively. The researchers suggest that habitat characteristics and species traits play a crucial role in mediating the response of aquatic communities to the addition of structural habitat. Overall, the study provides insights into how structural habitat manipulations can influence fish communities and highlights the importance of considering ecosystem-specific factors when implementing management strategies to enhance ecosystem resilience. You can find the paper in the journal Ecological Applications: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/eap.2814
Great lakes Basin and Inland Lakes
Great Lakes Basin and Inland Lakes
Gutgesell, M., McMeans, B.C., Guzzo, M.M., de Groot, V., Fisk, A.T., Johnson, T.B. and McCann, K.S., 2022. Subsidy accessibility drives asymmetric food web responses. Ecology, 103(12), p.e3817.
O'Connor, R.F., McMeans, B.C., Rooney, N., Guzzo, M.M., Young, J.D. and McCann, K.S., 2022. Species portfolio effects dominate seasonal zooplankton stabilization within a large temperate lake. Ecology, pp.e3889-e3889.
Champagne, E.J., Guzzo, M.M., Gutgesell, M.K. and McCann, K.S., 2022. Riparian buffers maintain aquatic trophic structure in agricultural landscapes. Biology Letters, 18(3), pp.20210598-20210598.
Warne, C.P., McCann, K.S., Rooney, N., Cazelles, K. and Guzzo, M.M., 2020. Geography and Morphology Affect the Ice Duration Dynamics of Northern Hemisphere Lakes Worldwide. Geophysical Research Letters, 47(12), p.e87953.
Connor Warne, Dr. Matthew M Guzzo, Dr. Kevin Cazelles, Dr. Cindy Chu, Dr. Neil Rooney, and Dr. Kevin S. McCann. 2023. Thermal tolerance and habitat preferences mediate how freshwater fish body sizes respond to warming. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2023-0233
Global Sustainability
Moore, N.A., Morales-Castilla, I., Hargreaves, A.L. et al. 2023. Temperate species underfill their tropical thermal potentials on land. Nat Ecol Evol.
Bieg, Carling, Timothy J. Bartley, Kevin S. McCann, and Robert H. Hanner. 2022. Replicating nature's fabric: High information markets and the sustainability of global seafood. Food Webs 32: e00239.
Cazelles, K., Zemlak, T.S., Gutgesell, M., Myles-Gonzalez, E., Hanner, R. and Shear McCann, K., 2021. Spatial fingerprinting: horizontal fusion of multi-dimensional bio-tracers as solution to global food provenance problems. Foods, 10(4), p.717.
Bieg, C., Vallès, H., Tewfik, A., Lapointe, B. & Mccann, K. 2022. Towards a multi-stressor theory for coral reefs in a changing world. 10.1101/2022.03.22.485402.
Theory, Models & Management Tools
Sunday, J.M., Bernhardt, J.R., Harley, C.D.G. & O’Connor, M.I. 2023. Temperature dependence of competitive ability is cold-shifted compared to that of growth rate in marine phytoplankton. Ecology Letters, 00, 1–12.
Charlotte A. Ward, Tyler D. Tunney, Kevin S. McCann. 2023. Managing aquatic habitat structure for resilient trophic interactions. Ecological Applications, 10.1002/eap.2814.
Donohue, I., Coscieme, L., Gellner, G., Yang, Q., Jackson, A.L., Kubiszewski, I., Costanza, R., and McCann, K.S. 2023. Accelerated economic recovery in countries powered by renewables. Ecological Economics, 212, 107916.
Säterberg, T. and McCann, K., 2021. Detecting alternative attractors in ecosystem dynamics. Communications biology, 4(1), p.975.
McCann, K.S., Cazelles, K., Macdougall, A.S., Fussmann, G.F., Bieg, C., Cristescu, M., Fryxell, J.M., Gellner, G., Lapointe, B. and Gonzalez, A., 2021. Landscape modification and nutrient-driven instability at a distance. Ecology Letters, 24, pp.398-414.
McMeans, B.C., McCann, K.S., Guzzo, M.M., Bartley, T.J., Bieg, C., Blanchfield, P.J., Fernandes, T., Giacomini, H.C., Middel, T., Rennie, M.D. and Ridgway, M.S., 2020. Winter in water: differential responses and the maintenance of biodiversity. Ecology Letters, 23(6), pp.922-938.